Millennials: Making Friends at Work…Until Promotion Time

Millennial workers place a high value on office friendships, according to a recent study, but those feelings are fleeting when a promotion rolls around.

A recent study from LinkedIn of 11,500 people shows 50% of workers ages 18 to 24 say workplace friendships bring motivation and 30% say they increase productivity. However, 68% of this group say they would sacrifice a friendship with a colleague for a promotion.

On the flip side, 62% of baby boomers (ages 55 to 65) report they would never even consider doing this to their work friends.

Millennials may be chatting one another up at the water cooler, but the conversation tends to be strictly business. Nearly one-third say socializing with their work buddies helps them to move up the career ladder, compared with 5% of baby boomers who say the same.

It’s not just colleagues younger workers don’t feel loyalty toward: A recent survey from beyond.com found millennial workers don’t feel as loyal to their jobs as past generations do, according to beyond.com. The online career network finds 30% of companies lost 15% or more of their millennial employees in the past year.